Learning to Fly, and Aiming to Soar

​In the early years of my career as a special education teacher, I worked with the most vulnerable students, students who struggled academically for many different reasons. They were often written off for any chance of student “success” long before anyone gave them the chance to rise. It was fitting that our school took a phoenix as its mascot: a phoenix for these students would rise from difficult circumstances… from ashes. 

This hope of rising is embodied in the story of St. Joseph of Cupertino.

​His story sounds too strange to be true. A young Italian man living in the 1600s, he was seen as intellectually incapable and was turned away from priestly formation and dismissed more than once as unsuited for that life. Almost no one believed he would amount to anything. Yet, he lived a holiness and a life so consumed in prayer that his body would rise off the ground. By every worldly measure, St. Joseph of Cupertino was written off, but he became known as the “Flying Friar”. He became a saint!

The Church now honours him as the patron of students and test-takers, not because he was brilliant, but because he understood something we often forget: our worth is never determined by accomplishments or ability alone. It is prayer, not talent, that lifted Joseph of Cupertino off the ground, and it is prayer that lifts all of us.

St. Joseph of Cupertino’s feast day is approaching on September 18th. How fitting that this is also the date marking the 40th anniversary of our Catholic post-secondary institution, St. Mary's University in Calgary. Was this founding date a deliberate choice, or just one of God’s many divine coincidences? That answer is lost to history. Either way, St. Joseph of Cupertino is a perfect heavenly friend to honour as St. Mary’s continues to pursue great heights.

St. Mary's mission is to become Canada's preeminent Catholic university: serious scholarship, faithful teaching, and high standards. Yet like St. Joseph of Cupertino himself, its strength won’t be found in ability alone. One aspect that makes St. Mary's distinctly Catholic is that academic excellence and genuine care for student success can rise together.

Right now, that conviction takes shape across campus in many ways, including these important examples:

• The Woitas Centre for Inclusive Education, developed through a local Catholic family's generosity, is a new centre to form future educators to support students with exceptional learning needs, forming teachers who see every child through the lens of God-given dignity, not limitation.
• The Student Success Centre provides additional academic support to students with accommodations, helping them succeed in a post-secondary environment rather than fall through the cracks.
• The IPSESA is a 20-year partnership with an external community program that gives young adults with exceptional needs the full experience of university life, with real pathways toward meaningful employment. It’s critical to ensure not only the intellectual development of students, but their development as whole persons.

These are just a few examples of how St. Mary’s University leans into its identity as a truly Catholic university. As St. John Paul II wrote in Ex corde Ecclesiae, a Catholic university must "penetrate and inform" every part of university life, so that learning and genuine love for the person go hand in hand.

At the heart of that identity is holiness. Like St. Joseph of Cupertino, St Mary’s University won’t fly because of anything but praying without reserve.

This is where you come in.

We invite you to join St. Mary's Prayer Guild, an individual prayer commitment to pray for the spiritual needs of the university. Guild members offer weekly prayer for the students who are trying to rise, the faculty who form them with patience, and the benefactors whose generosity makes this mission possible.

St. Joseph of Cupertino, pray for us.

​St. Mary's Prayer Guild is an individual commitment to pray for the intentions of St. Mary's University each week. If you would like to join us, please email Kimberly at [email protected] to receive a prayer booklet and the current prayer needs of StMU.

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Submitted by Kimberly Cichon, for St. Mary's Prayer Guild